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HRANA News Agency – Dr.
Assadollah Assadi, a political prisoner in Evin is in grave danger due
to continuing his hunger strike in protest of his situation.

According to a report by
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), This political activist is
in hunger strike from Friday, November 16, 2012 in protest of his
medical leave rejection by prison's authorities.Political prisoner Dr.
Assadollah Assadi’s attempted suicide two times, once on Sunday March
11, 2012 failed due to prompt action by his cellmates in Ward 350 of
Evin prison.

Amnesty International is
calling on the Iranian authorities to act decisively to end the
continuing confusion surrounding the cause of the death in custody of
blogger, Sattar Beheshti and to establish the truth of what happened.

The Supreme Leader must
ensure that a thorough and impartial investigation is carried out into
this and all other deaths in custody. These should be conducted in a
manner that complies with international standards for such
investigations.

HRANA News Agency – It's one
year that Shabnam and Farzad Madadzadeh, brother and sister in Evin and
Rajaishahr prisons are banned from visiting each other.

According
to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Shabnam and
Farzad Madadzadeh with five-year sentences can visit each other in the
frame of Iranian Prisons' Law, but it's one year that they are banned
from visiting by the judiciary authorities.

Shabnam
Madadzadeh and her brother Farzad Madadzadeh were arrested in February ,
2009 and after one year of temporary arrests were sentenced to five
years in prison in Evin and Rajaei Shahr Prisons.

Shabnam
Madadzadeh is a member of Tahkim Vahdat, the union for Islamic
associations of university students across the country. It is the
largest student-dependent organization critical of the [Iranian]
government.

HRANA News Agency – Dr.
Assadollah Assadi, a political prisoner in Evin is in grave danger due
to continuing his hunger strike in protest of his situation.

According to a report by
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), This political activist is
in hunger strike from Friday, November 16, 2012 in protest of his
medical leave rejection by prison's authorities.Political prisoner Dr.
Assadollah Assadi’s attempted suicide two times, once on Sunday March
11, 2012 failed due to prompt action by his cellmates in Ward 350 of
Evin prison.

Paris,
Tuesday, 27 November 2012 - The International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH) and the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights
(LDDH) welcome the passing today of the resolution on the situation of
human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran by a resounding majority in
the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee of the UN
General Assembly.

Behrouz Ghobadi, brother of
internationally acclaimed Iranian film maker, Bahman Ghobadi, was
arrested on 4 November 2012 by men in plain clothes, believed to belong
to the Ministry of Intelligence. He is reportedly being held in a
Ministry of Intelligence detention centre, placing him at risk of
torture or other ill-treatment. Behrouz Ghobadi, father of a newborn
baby boy and a member of the Kurdish minority in Iran , was arrested in
the early hours of the morning of 4 November. He was in a taxi driving
from Sanandaj, the capital of the north-western Kordestan province, to a
Tehran airport. Plain-clothes men, who were reportedly following him,
stopped his car and arrested him around 15 kilometres outside Sanandaj.
Judicial officials claim that they had an arrest
warrant but the reasons for his arrest do not appear to have been
disclosed to his family or lawyer.

Political prisoners Loqman and Zaniar Moradi who are awaiting their
execution, wrote a letter regarding the contradictory remarks of the Marivan Friday Prayer Imam from Gohardasht [Rajayi Shahr] Prison
in Karaj.

The European Parliament expressed grave concerns about the human rights situation of refugees and migrants in Libya, mass executions in Iran, and the resurgence of ethnic violence in Burma, in resolutions passed in Strasbourg on Thursday. ….Iran: mass executions and recent death of Sattar Behesthi
Parliament voices serious concern about the steadily deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, citing the growing number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, the high number of executions, including of juveniles, widespread torture, unfair trials and heavy restrictions on freedom of information, expression, assembly, religion, education and movement. MEPs are also deeply concerned about the death in prison of blogger Sattar Behesthi. and urge the Iranian authorities to conduct a thorough enquiry into the case.
Parliament also urges Iran to release all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, including 2012 Sakharov Prize winner Nasrin Sotoudeh and cites concerns that she is being held in conditions detrimental to her health. It calls upon the Iranian authorities to allow both Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi to collect their Sakharov prize in December 2012 in Strasbourg.

I would like to first of all offer my thanks to the governments of Germany, Sweden, and Norway for unconditionally accepting my request to conduct my latest fact-finding mission in their countries. The mission has been very successful, as I was able to collect a wealth of valuable information on subjects relevant to my mandate in Berlin, Stockholm, and Oslo.

Over the past twelve days, I have met and spoken with several dozen individuals of Iranian origin, human rights workers, government officials, and academic experts. I would like to thank everyone who took time to share information with me, particularly those who were able and willing to offer first-hand witness testimony related to the situation of human rights in Iran.
I have and will continue to apply rigorous standards in assessing the credibility of every individual account and piece of testimony I encounter. With that said, the credible testimonies I did receive on this trip have largely confirmed patterns I had previously encountered, and paint a very concerning picture of the human rights situation in Iran.

I speak at a time when the execution rate in Iran seems to have accelerated to an alarming pace in recent weeks and months. There are credible reports, in many cases corroborated by the government itself, that the number of executions carried out in just the past two weeks is at least 32, and possibly as high as 81. In October, the government executed 10 individuals, including Mr. Saeed Sedighi, despite impassioned calls from the international community to halt the executions in light of serious concerns regarding due process. I am extremely alarmed by this apparent spike in executions, and I reiterate my call on the government of Iran to adhere to its own international legal obligations in guaranteeing due process and ceasing the use of the capital punishment, except in cases narrowly defined as acceptable by the UN Human Rights Committee for the ICCPR.

I am troubled by the treatment of various minority groups in the country, who all too often bear the brunt of repressive policies. These include unrecognized religious minorities like the Baha’i and Yarsan, as well as recognized but increasingly suppressed religious communities like Christians and certain Sunni Muslim communities. I am also deeply concerned about ethnic minorities, including the Baluch, Kurdish, Ahwazi Arab, Turkmen, and Azerbaijani peoples, whose plights are often compounded by linguistic and cultural subjugation, in additional to political repression.

The situation for women in Iran has worsened in recent months, as new segregationist education policies have been implemented, and women’s rights activists are being harassed and sometimes arrested for various forms of free expression, including for the defense of women’s rights or for educational or cultural expression. A new bill, currently in the Parliament, would extend the age required for women to obtain the consent of a parental guardian for a passport to 40.

The situation for sexual minorities in Iran is also extremely alarming, as the government tightly controls all forms of consensual relations.

The Iranian government continues to harass, detain, and imprison human rights defenders, who are often themselves lawyers, raising serious concerns about the independence of lawyers and of the judiciary in the country. While I was pleased that the government released Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani in September, I was disappointed that only days later, authorities summoned his lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, to serve a prison sentence for spurious charges. Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, another lawyer and human rights defender currently in prison, is on a hunger strike related to the authorities’ treatment of her family, and I am worried about her condition.

Of course, I am extremely troubled by reports that Mr. Sattar Beheshti, a blogger imprisoned for exercising his legitimate right to free expression, died while in custody, possibly because of injuries sustained from torture. I expect the Iranian government to conduct a comprehensive, impartial, and transparent investigation into his death, to make the methodology and results of that investigation public, and to punish anyone responsible and compensate his family appropriately. I also once again extend this call for investigations to cases dealt with by previous mandate holders, and to the events following the 2009 presidential elections. In this regard I echo the concluding observations made by the Human Rights Committee in their review of Iran last year.

Unfortunately, it appears that the space is narrowing for any independent thought or expression that

Iranian government authorities do not approve of, for any reason, in contravention of Iran’s international legal obligations and, indeed, some of its own laws.
I remain hopeful that the government of Iran will substantively engage the specific findings that I have outlined today, and in more detail in my reports, and that we can work together to reverse these trends and promote respect for human rights, freedom, and rule of law.

The story of imprisoned student activist Arash Sadeghi and its radicalising effect on his family is becoming a familiar one in Iran
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 November 2012http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/23/iran-activists-jailed-speaking-out
When the Iranian student activist Arash Sadeghi was temporarily released from Tehran 's Evin prison in November 2010, he anticipated a little respite from a year of harsh beatings and agony in jail.
Instead, within a few days, security officials had raided his home in middle of the night. As they broke their way into the house, Sadeghi's mother, who was alone with her daughter, suffered a heart attack.
The officials continued their search as she laid unconscious on the floor, ransacking the house and trying to find Sadeghi, who was at his grandfather's house that night. When the officials left, Farahnaz Dargahi was taken to hospital. She died within a few days.
"My father, my sister and my entire family and relatives blame me for her death," Sadeghi told the news website Roozonline at the time. "Our house has become hell … My father tells me that you killed your mother and I don't want you at home … I prefer to go back to jail."
In no time, Sadeghi, a 26-year-old student of philosophy at Tehran 's Allameh Tabatabai University , was indeed taken back to prison. Since then he has spent all but one month in jail. For the past 11 months, Sadeghi has been held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer.
His father, Hossein Sadeghi, works for the Iranian army and lives in a house given to his family by the state. Having initially blamed his son for what happened to their family, now that he has witnessed the injustices he has suffered Hossein is ready to risk his job and even arrest to speak out for the first time.
"I regret what I said about him in the past," he told the Guardian on the phone from Tehran . "I haven't been able to see him and tell him myself … but I'm sorry."
According to Sadeghi senior, his son went on hunger strike recently in support of a fellow inmate, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, a 25-year-old blogger who is serving a 15-year prison term.
"Arash is deprived of his very basic rights," his father said. "He had no access to a lawyer in the past 11 months and was only allowed to meet his grandfather twice." Sadeghi's grandfather has previously been arrested for speaking out about him.
"His health deteriorated to a point that they transferred him to hospital," he said. "One of the nurses managed to call us and tell us that his health was seriously bad … She said one of his ears was injured due to severe beatings."
Sadeghi is accused of "gathering and colluding with intent to harm national security", a vague charge used against many student activists.
Sadeghi's father said: "Every month, the intelligence services summon me and threaten me that they would kick me out of my house and fire me should I choose to speak out … But I have no fear any more … They want to silence us."
Drewery Dyke, of Amnesty International, said the journey of Arash Sadeghi's father was one that was happening more and more often, especially in the second term of office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
According to Dyke, the death in custody of the Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti last month, which sparked international outrage, has inspired many, like Hossein Sadeghi, to speak out.
"What it shows us, as in the case of the family of blogger Sattar Beheshti, is that more and more Iranians have reached the conclusion that no one in the country is willing or able to help them, and so, now, despite all the pressures that the authorities can bring to bear, family members themselves are speaking out," he said. "And these are not families of notable activists but normal families who simply demand want justice and for their dignity to be acknowledged."
He added: "The authorities may have repressed much of the the human rights community in Iran, but the brave acts of speaking out – exemplified by Arash Sadeghi's father and a handful of others – tells us that the authorities have not repressed the essential thirst for justice and human dignity sought be Iranians. That, they cannot quash."
Dyke said the criminal justice system of Iran was in "something of a shambles" and the plight of Arash Sadeghi was typical. "He is held on a temporary order, with cases based on vaguely worded criminal charges before him. There are scores of such cases adrift in the criminal justice system in Iran today. Why? The basic humanity that underpins effective case management appears absent, so that it takes a case of a death in custody, like Sattar Beheshti, to jolt awake judicial officials."
In his interview with Roozonline, Sadeghi revealed a glimpse of his torment in jail. "I endured a lot of pressure during my incarceration," he said "I was beaten so severely that my shoulder was twice dislocated and my teeth were broken," he said, according to the translation of the interview published on persian2english.com.
"The beatings, slapping around and kicking were bearable, what was most difficult to endure was when they removed the hair on my body. The worst thing they did to me was to remove the hair on my face, arms and chest. For this reason, my face was scarred. They used to blindfold us and punch and kick us severely in the face. As a result of these beatings my eye was bleeding once and I couldn't see for a long time."
Last week Sadeghi sent out a letter from inside Evin to Tehran 's prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabad, telling him he would not apologise.
"You had said that I should write an apology … I haven't done anything wrong to apologise and request clemency," he wrote. "It's you and your friends and colleagues who should apologise to the people of Iran for the physical elimination of some of your opposition in the past 33 years."